para-Oxadiazolylphenylboronic acids are of considerable industrial importance as precursors for active ingredients, in particular as precursors for correspondingly substituted biphenyl derivatives, which are used as AT (II) antagonists, or as precursors for liquid-crystalline compounds, as liquid crystals or as a constituent of liquid-crystalline mixtures. Phenylboronic acids can be coupled to haloaromatic compounds with catalysis by transition metals with the aid of methods described in the literature, to give biphenyl derivatives (N. Miyaura et al., Tetrahedron Lett., 3437 (1979); A. L. Casalnuovo et al., J. Amer. Chem. Soc. 112, 4324 (1990)).